One of the accepted paradigms in the fields of chemistry and biochemistry is that chemical or biochemical effector agents, e.g., molecules, interact with target systems through various physicochemical forces, such as ionic, charge, or dispersion forces or through the cleavage or formation of covalent of charge-induced bonds. These forces may involve vibrational or rotational energy modes in either the effector agent or target system.
Thus, for example, when a drug molecule is administered to a biological organism, the action of the drug involves its interaction with target components, e.g., membrane, enzyme, or nucleic acid components, to produce or trigger a chain of events associated action of the drug. Similarly, if an enzyme is added to a biological substrate, the enzyme is able to interact with substrate through some type of spatial coordination, and energetic modes present in the system are transduced into an active or activated state leading to covalent bond cleavage or formation.
A corollary of this paradigm is the requirement, in effector-target systems, of the effector agent in the target environment. However, what is not known or understood is whether this requirement is related to the actual presence of the effector, or whether it may be due, at least as to certain effector functions, to the presence of energetic modes that are characteristic of the effector. If effector function can be simulated, at least in part, by certain characteristic energetic modes, it may be possible to “simulate” the effect of the effector agent in a target system by exposing the system to certain energetic modes that are characteristic of the effector. If so, the questions that naturally arise are: what effector-molecule energy modes are effective, how can they be converted or transduced into the form of measurable signals, and how can these signals be used to effect a target system, that is, mimic at least some of the effector functions of the molecule in a target system?
These questions were addressed in recently filed co-owned patent applications 60/593,006 and 60/591,549. Experiments conducted in support of the invention described in the application demonstrate that certain effector functions on a target system (in this case, one of a number of biological systems), can be duplicated by exposing the target system to electromagnetic waves produced by “transducing” a time-domain signal of the effector compound. According to the earlier-described invention, the time-domain signal is produced by recording a signal produced by the compound in a shielded environment, while injecting noise into the recording apparatus at a level that enhances the ability to observe low-frequency stochastic events produced by the compound. In the earlier-described application, the transducing signal was the actual compound time-domain signal of the effector compound.
The possibility of achieving effector-molecule functions by exposing a target system to characteristic effector-molecule signals, without the need for the actual presence of the effector agent, has a number of important and intriguing applications. Instead of treating an organism by the application of a drug, the same effect may be achieved by exposing the organism to drug-specific signals. In the field of nanofabrication, it might now be possible to catalyze or encourage self-assembly patterns by introducing in the assembly system, signals characteristic of a multivalent effector molecules capable of promoting the desired pattern of self-assembly.
The present invention describes apparatus and methods for achieving effector-specific results in systems known to be responsive to the effector, by transduction with low-frequency signals that are characteristic of the effector molecule.